Fans react to Brandon Vera’s post-fight retirement speech at ONE 164

At ONE 164 in Manila, the crowd in attendance witnessed the last fight of Brandon Vera’s career. The former heavyweight world champion announced his retirement after losing his comeback fight to Amir Aliakbari.

Laying his gloves down in the cage, the fans showed Vera just how much he means to Manila as one of the Philippines’ best ever champions and most beloved fighters.

‘The Truth’ had seemingly laid his cards down on the table in the lead-up to the fight, speaking about other career options that he has if his return to competition didn’t go his way.

After his post-fight speech, which saw him announce that this would be his last fight inside the circle, this is how fans and fellow fighters reacted in the comments below ONE Championship’s post of Brandon Vera’s retirement:

@caspianseabed wrote:

“Witnessing his retirement live is such an emotional scene. All hail to the legend. Big respect to the great warrior Brandon "The Truth" Vera”

@alain.ngalani offered:

“👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽.. RESPECT🙏🏽”

Finally, ONE Championship CEO signed off on the former champion's career with this comment:

“congratulations on everything, brandon! you made your dent on the universe and are now a beloved national hero to every filipino around the world!”

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ONE 164 results: Amir Aliakbari sends Brandon Vera into retirement with a first-round TKO

Former ONE heavyweight world champion Bradon Vera made his long-awaited return to competition at ONE 164 on Saturday. In front of his home fans in Manila, ‘The Truth’ stepped into the cage for the first time in 18 months, taking on wrestler Amir Aliakbari.

Brandon Vera opened the fight by putting pressure on his opponent and hitting him with leg kicks to take away some of Aliakabari’s movement. Aliakbari played the opening minutes defensively, avoiding Vera’s power and waiting for his opportunity to shoot in for a takedown.

With 100 seconds left in the round, the Iranian got the takedown that he was looking for with relative ease and began landing elbows. When Vera rolled over to avoid Aliakbari’s elbow strikes, the wrestling specialist kept landing strikes which forced his opponent to cover up.

When Vera was unable to get out of the position, referee Herb Dean was forced to step in to call off the fight in the very first round.

After their heated clash at the weigh-ins before the fight, both men showed respect after the fight was over.